Evening clouds over Bratislava

This is a quite common view of Bratislava now, after they replaced the Old bridge. For few years, with the old bridge closed off, and then being completely gone, this view was not accessible at all. Still, with the trams passing quite frequently on the bridge, getting a nice evening photo is not that easy. The bridge can shake like crazy. Even with this photo, I started editing a different shot, and then I noticed that the bracket were completely miss-aligned and bury. Luckily, I tend to do multiple shots in places like this, to be sure one is good enough. And one was.

Bratislava Majales fireworks

Majales is an open air festival held every year in the middle of Bratislava, next to the Danube river. And it always ends in fireworks. Today’s photo is from the festival in 2012, so already 7 years ago. I stumbled upon this photo when looking for examples for my article on Topaz Denoise AI yesterday, and I decided to edit it.

If you want a photo of fireworks in Bratislava, the next Majales is in two weeks. From the 3rd to 5th May. The fireworks will be in this same spot on the 5th at 21:45 in the evening. There will be a lot of people there, but since this is not the New years fireworks, it’s not as bad. For those curious about the event, here is the official site.

This is a single exposure, double edited in Camera RAW and then blended in Photoshop. I even used Topaz Denoise AI on this one, as I had to overexpose the shot. That created a bit of noise. And the results were again great :). I think it will be my main denoise plugin from now on, if it gives me such nice results on all of the photos.

50mm f1.4 lens

I got the 50mm f1.4 lens already like two years ago, and I almost never used it. So today I though, I will just take photos with it. And since it was a beautiful day, I decided to visit the Botanical garden in Bratislava. Makes for some beautiful spring colors this time of the year. And I did almost all the photo at f1.4, just to get used to it. After always being somewhere around f11 to f16, the change in DOF is just massive. But the bokeh is so soft, one just has to like it :)

Spring colors

When I started this blog, I sued to do a post with nature photos every spring. But over time I stooped. Spring was very busy for me the last few years. But this year I have a bit of time, so I got back to it. Hope you like the change from my usual shots.

All these photos were taken handheld and are single exposures. All edited in Lightroom, then sharpened for web in Photoshop.

Light beams at the Old bridge

Let’s continue with another photo from my archives. This one I took last year at the White night event in Bratislava. If you never heard of the White night, it a night where there are many light installations around the city, just for that night. It’s quite popular here and the streets are full of people that day. The next one is still a bit off, as it’s on the 28th of September.

This shot was taken under the Old bridge, when they had these moving light beams shining from the bridge. Sometimes they have these, sometimes they have color lights inside the bridge instead. I like both. I took multiple photos trying to catch the lights pointing straight up, and almost got all of them. This is a two shot vertorama, each shot from two exposures. Blended and merged in Photoshop.

Across the Danube

I really like this view of Bratislava. The SNP bridge (or also known as the New bridge) spans the Danube and creates a nice contrast between the modern stile on the left and the old on the right. Still, there is a variation on this photo I want to take. Right around the end of the spring, the sun sets right in the middle between the castle and the bridge. So you can imagine how I want to capture it. I been planing a photo like that for years now. But I always forgotten and once I remembered, the sun was already setting at a different location. But maybe this year I finally remember and get the photo I want :)

This one I took late autumn last year. This is a two shot panorama, each shot from 2 exposures. Blended and combined in Photoshop. Btw. almost all of my recent photos have been edited only in Photoshop and only with the basic tools like masks and levels. The more I edit the more I want to go towards simplicity, and this is the result of it right now :)

Sharing images

All images are shared under Creative Commons, Attribution, Non-derivatieves, Non-Commercial. Feel free to use images non-commercialy on your blog, facebook, pinterest and similar but link to www.hdrshooter.com and give credit to me, Miroslav Petrasko, as the author.